katrina, i agree with you. we remember the box of rocks that bush left obama when he came into office. i am shocked by how the media has given the republicans a pass, because when bush came into office, clinton left him a $5.60 trillion surplus. bush gave it away to his billionaire buddies. that was 2001. in 2003, bush gave republican job creators $3.50 trillion for jobs, but we got [indiscernible] 2008. that is a whole year. president obama was then-senator obama -- guest: your command of the numbers is terrific. the question about the media. it is linked, let's be honest -- you have to have strong voices inside the democratic party and strong voices outside in the movements of our time and independent media to call the mainstream media, and we can discuss what mainstream media means, but there is a mainstream establishment media which has as its working premise the idea of the cult of balance, something our media columnist, eric alterman, has written a lot about. if someone went on to the floor of congress an